Hannah thought about this while her mother munched a Molasses Crackle. Like her mother, Hannah wasn’t fond of office work. She knew how to file and write a business letter, but would she do it for either of the men she dated and loved? Norman didn’t need her to do his office work. He had a part-time helper from the Jordan High business class for that. And Mike didn’t need her either because he used the secretarial pool at the Winnetka County Sheriff’s station.

“Why so thoughtful, dear?” Delores asked, finishing the last of her coffee.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with spending three days and nights in jail.”

“Why would that make you thoughtful?”

“Because there was nothing else to do while I was there. When the lights went off at ten o’clock, I couldn’t read any longer. And no visitors were allowed after ten at night, so the only things I had for entertainment were my own thoughts.”

Delores looked pensive. “That must have been boring, dear,” she said.

“Not at all. I carried on imaginary conversations with people, I speculated on quite a few what-ifs, and I tried to imagine what my life would be like ten years from now.”

“Ten years from now?” When Hannah nodded, Delores began to smile. “I would hope you’d be married with at least two children. And still in love with your husband.”

“I knew you’d say that, Mother,” Hannah said, her mind busily searching for a way to change the subject. There was no way she’d tell her mother about her daydream of being a contestant in a food channel contest, winning the competition, and becoming a famous dessert chef. She’d mentioned her flight of fancy to Michelle, but she certainly didn’t want to discuss it with her mother! “How about you, Mother?” she asked, turning the tables so quickly her mother actually looked a bit off balance.

“Me?” Delores stalled for time.

“Yes, you. Where do you think you’ll be in ten years?”

“I should hope I’d be right here in Lake Eden, happily married to Doc and doing almost the same things I’m doing right now.” There was a slight narrowing of Delores’s brown eyes. “And I would hope that all my grandchildren would be right here around me, and Doc and I would all be enjoying time with them.”

“That’s assuming you’ll be marrying Doc.”

“Of course it is! I’m certainly not going to be marrying anyone else, except Doc!”

“But you might not be marrying him.”

“What do you mean by that?”